More in Nebraska uninsured

OMAHA -- Nearly 13 percent of Nebraskans have no health insurance coverage, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

The state’s two-year average uninsured rate for 2006-07 is up 2.3 percentage points, to 12.8 percent, from the average rate of 2004-05, 10.5 percent.

But why Nebraska is falling behind is unclear, said Dr. Richard O’Brien, co-chairman of the Nebraska Medical Association’s Health Care Reform Task Force.

“We’ve got to do something about health care in this country and in this state,” he said.

The state’s rate of uninsured still falls below the nationwide 2006-2007 average of 15.5 percent.

Nebraska is among 10 states that saw an increase in their two-year average rate of uninsured.

Two years of data, and in some cases three, are combined because of the smaller survey size, said David Drozd, a research associate with the University of Nebraska at Omaha’s Center for Public Affairs Research.

The data was part of a new census report on income, poverty and health insurance coverage in the U.S. that was released Tuesday.

Nebraska’s poverty rate held close to 11 percent, which isn’t much of a departure from 2006 data, but is up nearly a percentage point since 2001.

The major concern about health care for Nebraskans is cost, said O’Brien, referring to results of a survey commissioned by the association and conducted in April by KRC Research. The survey included more than 500 Nebraskans using a demographically representative cross-section.

The number of children without health insurance remains concerning, said officials with Voices for Children in Nebraska who issued a statement in response to the census report.

About 45,000 children -- or 10 percent of the child population in the state -- don’t have access to health care, despite efforts to provide greater access through the State Children’s Health Insurance Program, according to the release.

State lawmakers attempted a similar effort in January, when legislation was introduced that would have increased the state eligibility rate for Kids Connection, an insurance program for low-income children. The bill failed to advance out of committee.

Sarah Ann Lewis, policy coordinator for Voices for Children, said, “Nebraska’s legislators need to expand this program to ensure that Nebraska’s children have access to the care that they need to grow up healthy and strong.”